Tag Archives: UCSF

Two decades in the making, a new $160 million UC San Francisco research facility at San Francisco General Hospital is closer to reality than ever before.

The long-proposed five-story facility, to be constructed at the existing B-C parking lot at the southeast corner of the hospital campus near 23rd and Vermont streets, will be home to about 200 UCSF physician-scientists and some 800 employees working under them.

Members of the Health Commission on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution endorsing a nonbinding agreement between The City and the UC system regents to lease the lot space. Base rent will be $180,000 annually for 75 years, with a 24-year option to extend.

Following an environmental review, the final ground lease would go before the Board of Supervisors around June 2016, with construction projected to begin sometime in 2017 for a grand opening in late 2019.

On that land, UCSF would build its facility, with the $160 million already factored into its budget, at no cost to The City. The plan was tossed around for 20 years but negotiated in its current form for the past couple years.

“It’s been a challenge, but it has been done,” said Sue Carlisle, vice dean of UCSF’s School of Medicine at the hospital…

Though there were initial concerns from patients and neighbors about parking loss, no objections have been voiced lately, said Rachael Kagan, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, which operates the hospital.

The department has formed a working group with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to look at traffic management and explore the possibility of building out the hospital parking garage, which currently occupies only two-thirds of its allotted area. That proposal is expected to go before the transit agency board in September.

“We really appreciate the support of neighbors who understand the importance of the research but understand potential parking issues and are doing everything we can to address that,” Kagan said… (more)

No recent objections! The residents have been kept completely in the dark about the plans. For months no one returned requests for an update. That is why there have been no objections. To add insult to injury, the plan for SF General was announced at the Mission Bay CAC, nowhere near the site, and the nearby residents were not invited to that meeting. They were completely blindsided.

Now they know and this is a CHALLENGE TO OBJECT!!

Not only is the SFMTA adding more parking challenges to the neighborhood, they are cutting direct service to General by cutting the 33 Line off at 16th Street, forcing site and weak patients to transfer at 16th and Potrero.

This the best example so far of how much disdain the SFMTA has for the public that depends on them for transportation and why the public should demand for an elected board that represents them.

The Golden State Warriors’ plans for an 18,000-seat arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay are suddenly running into big-time political problems.

An anonymous group of what organizers describe as big-bucks donors to UCSF hired an imposing cast of consultants — including former UCSF Senior Vice Chancellor Bruce Spaulding and, for a time, Chronicle columnist and former Mayor Willie Brown — to block the plan for the arena and adjacent twin office towers in Mission Bay near the waterfront…

“This arena is going to essentially ruin decades of good work and planning in Mission Bay and make it impossible for people to access the hospital there,” said public relations pro Sam Singer, who has also been hired by the antiarena forces.

The emergence of the opposition group comes just a month before the final environmental impact report for the Warriors’ arena is due to be released — raising suggestions that the effort is largely aimed at trying to force the team to scale back its ambitious plan for developing 12 acres next to UCSF…

One big issue, said Singer: The Warriors plan to build just 950 parking spaces for the project, 650 of which would serve the two office towers.

Singer called the parking figures “absolutely ludicrous.”…

Ambulance concerns

Hawgood’s worries included that the development could snag ambulances in gridlock, especially when the Giants are at home at the same time an event is being held at the arena…(more)

Do we want public safety or a sports arena in a hospital zone? Who didn’t see this one coming? You know you are getting into a tight situation when public agencies and institutions are now fighting over turf. Time for a time out on development while we catch up with the infrastructure we need to support what is already built?